Hóngshān chá (洪山茶) is a tea of Yidu county-level city (宜都市), Yichang prefecture, Hubei Province, protected by two geographical indication certification marks. The holder of both is the Yidu Institute of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Biotechnology (宜都市农牧生物技术研究所). The name is linked to Songmuping Town (松木坪镇) of this county: the Hubei edition of Renmin Ribao writes that under the Qing “Hongshan tea” from the vicinity of the Taoist temple Yuntaiguan was supplied to the court as tribute. The mark’s card at the provincial intellectual property administration describes the appearance and taste but not the processing, and the class is named nowhere, so the article is placed among the overview articles.
1. Classification and Origin
- Type: Not established. Neither the register nor the mark’s card names the class or describes the processing; in the register the goods are designated as “茶叶” — tea leaf. The quality description in the card — a tender green, bright spent leaf and a liquor compared to mung bean broth — is closest to green tea, but without the technology this remains a guess.
- Category: Historical local tea; two geographical indication certification marks.
- Origin: China, Hubei Province (湖北, Húběi), Yichang prefecture (宜昌, Yíchāng), Yidu county-level city (宜都, Yídū), Songmuping Town (松木坪镇), the Hongshan locality.
- Protection zone: The boundaries of the area from the rules for use of the marks are not found in the sources consulted. The register indicates only the administrative affiliation of the holder — Yidu.
- Geographic coordinates: Yidu county-level city — about 30° N and 111° E; the sources do not give an exact point for the gardens.
2. History and Cultural Significance
- History:
- Qing. A caption to a photo series in the Hubei edition of Renmin Ribao (July 2020) says that already under the Qing “洪山茶” from the vicinity of the Yuntaiguan temple was supplied to the court as tribute (贡茶, gòngchá). The article names no chronicle or archival document, nor the period of the deliveries.
- A reference on Yidu specialties gives a different link: the tea is made on the Hongjia Daling ridge (洪家大岭) opposite the Chayuansi temple (茶园寺) in Songmuping, and “four hundred years ago” it was listed as tribute. The reference uses old administrative words — “Yidu County”, “Songmuping commune” — so it is unclear from which year the four hundred years are counted. The mark’s card names the locality “松木坪洪山大龄” — similar in sound to the reference’s ridge, but the sources confirm neither their identity nor the link of the ridge with the vicinity of Yuntaiguan.
- 2014. According to the list of the provincial intellectual property administration (data as of May 2020), the first certification mark “洪山茶”, No. 13836054, was protected from 28 August 2014 to 27 August 2024. Whether it has been renewed is not evident from the documents found.
- 2017. The second mark, No. 19423166 — from 28 December 2017 to 27 December 2027. Both are in class 30, goods “茶叶”, the holder is the Yidu biotechnology institute.
- 2023. The Hubei Intellectual Property Administration, in the 29th list of users of the special geographical indication mark (notice of 28 April 2023), allowed three enterprises of Yichang prefecture to use it under both marks.
- Name: 洪山 (Hóngshān) — “Mount Hong”; 茶 — tea. The name coincides with the name of the locality in Songmuping where, according to the mark’s card, the tea grows.
- Cultural significance: The Yuntaiguan temple (云台观), with which the press links the tribute, stands on Mount Yuntai (云台山) in Shuangjingsi village (双井寺村), Songmuping Town. It is the ancestral place of the Taoist Qingwei school (清微派); the temple, according to the same publication, is more than 700 years old.
3. Botanical Description and Raw Material
- Variety / Cultivar: Not named in the sources consulted.
- Raw material, harvest time and harvest standard: No data in the sources consulted.
4. Terroir and Cultivation Features
- Location: According to the mark’s card, cultivation is concentrated in the Hongshan locality of Songmuping Town.
- Area and output: According to the card — about 150 mu of gardens, about 45,000 kg of tea a year and about 80 million yuan of output value; sales are mainly local, and demand, in the card’s words, exceeds supply. The card does not name the year or the counting method.
- Growing altitude: The temple stands at an altitude of 880 m; the sources do not name the altitude of the gardens themselves.
- Climate: According to Renmin Ribao — clean air and large day-night temperature differences; the newspaper calls the place excellent for organic tea. There are no other data.
- Soils: No data in the sources consulted.
5. Production Technology
The technology is not described in the sources consulted, and the class is unknown, so even a general class scheme cannot be given.
The same publication mentions a local organic tea “Songyun Baijian” (松云白尖, sōngyún báijiān) that “grew up” in these places. It does not follow from the text that it is the same product or that they share a technology.
6. Organoleptic Characteristics
The only description is the mark’s card in a publication of the provincial intellectual property administration.
- Dry leaf appearance: Thin, tightly rolled and heavy, with visible silvery down and well-formed tips; the color is golden yellow with hidden green (外形细紧重实，银毫显露，锋苗好，色泽金黄隐翠).
- Dry leaf aroma: No separate description.
- Liquor aroma: Fragrant and lasting (芳香持久); the card does not specify whether of the leaf or of the liquor.
- Taste: Full, refreshing, with a sweet coolness (滋味醇爽甘凉); the tea withstands many infusions (经久耐泡).
- Liquor color: Light, tender (汤色清嫩).
- Spent leaves (wet leaves): Tender green, bright (叶底嫩绿鲜明).
The card reduces quality to four features: golden color, a liquor like mung bean broth, a sweet-cool taste and a fragrant aroma (金黄色、绿豆汤、甘凉味、芬芳香).
7. Chemical Composition
The mark’s card gives “laboratory analysis data”: water-soluble extract 46.22%, tea polyphenols 26.76%, amino nitrogen 311.53 mg per 100 g of dry tea. A caveat: the first two figures coincide to the hundredths with the card of the same agency for another tea — Xiangshuicun Yecha (香水村野茶) from Wufeng County, where only the amino nitrogen differs. Therefore they cannot be considered an independent measurement; the card does not name the year, the laboratory or the method.
8. Brewing
Class practice — and the class is unknown. For green tea, usually 80–85 °C and 3 g per 150 ml with a first infusion of 40–60 seconds; for red tea — 90–95 °C and a first infusion of about a minute. Producer recommendations are not found in the sources consulted.
9. Storage
Class practice. Green tea — in airtight packaging in a refrigerator at 0–5 °C; red tea — in a dry, dark place at room temperature. In both cases — away from light, moisture and odors.
10. Price and Counterfeits
Price data are not found in the sources consulted.
- How to avoid counterfeits:
- Check the special geographical indication mark and the mark number — No. 13836054 or No. 19423166.
- Check the producer against the lists of users of the mark published by the Hubei Intellectual Property Administration.
- Do not confuse with “鄂洪山菜苔” of Wuhan’s Hongshan District (洪山区): this is a separate certification mark for the vegetable caitai, No. 3958379, unrelated to tea.
- Do not confuse with the tea of the Dahongshan massif (大洪山) in the north of the province: there, in Suixian County, is Hongshan Town (洪山镇) with a large tea plantation, and a Suizhou company exports tea under the brand “大洪山” — this is a different locality and a different name.
- The mark’s card describes the appearance and taste, but the sources do not give a method for verifying authenticity by them.
11. Interesting Facts
- One tea has two certification marks with one holder and one name — registered in 2014 and 2017.
- The holder of the marks is neither a tea association nor an enterprise, but a county biotechnology institute.
- The mark’s card calls Hongshan tea the best tea of Yidu, and its gardens quite small: about 150 mu.
- The name “洪山” in Hubei is borne by both a Wuhan district and a town near the Dahongshan massif; the Yidu tea mark is linked to neither.
12. Comparison with Other Teas
- Yidu Tianran Fuxin Cha (宜都天然富锌茶): A green tea from the west of the same county, under a collective mark since 2007.
- Yidu Yihong Cha (宜都宜红茶): The red tea of Yidu, protected as a geographical indication; its class, unlike that of Hóngshān chá, is established.
- Zhongxiang Yunwu Cha (钟祥云雾茶): A mountain green tea of Zhongxiang county-level city, linked to the southern slope of the Dahongshan mountains — an example of that very “other Hongshan”.
In Conclusion:
Hóngshān chá is a name with a tribute history and two certification marks under which the right to the mark was granted in 2023, with a short quality description but no description of the processing. The documents confirm the holder, the numbers, the terms and the users of the mark; the mark’s card gives a thin downy leaf of golden color with hidden green, a light liquor and a sweet-cool taste; the press gives the place near the Yuntaiguan temple at an altitude of about 880 m. The class, variety and technology are not disclosed in the sources consulted: only the text of the rules for use of the mark can provide them.